While I like and think it is logical that DP review compares similar current models, I cannot help but feel that another reference is needed.

I am amazed at the pixel density of current cameras, especially the point and shoots - all of them at 14M pixels and no sign that they are going to stop at 14!

So has the technology improved so much that 14M pixels sensors are better than the old 5M pixel sensors - or is everyone just learning to live with what they get.

I would like to see a like-for-like comparision. Pick a camera family say the Canon ELPH series and compare the quality of the 4M, 6M, 8M, 12M and 14M pixels cameras.

has the quality gotten better, is there more software processing or is everyone just living with what they get.

The quality has gotten a little better, BUT, the manufacturers have chosen to use that "improved" quality to boost pixel count instead of increasing actual "quality" for the most part...

When the average uneducated (in photography) customer steps up to the counter to buy a camera, he/she is usually dealing with a sales person that knows about as much about cameras as I know about Nuclear Physics (nothing).

So when the customer picks up an 8mp camera and asks about it, the sales-person can say "but this one has 14 megapixels, so why not get it? More is better, right?".

More pixels is something the sales force can hang the sale on, without any particular knowledge about cameras..

So the crappy 14mp cameras "sell (for the most part) like hotcakes".

Manufacturers "follow the money", that is what they are in business to do.. Not to burst anyones "bubble" but, the manufacturers are NOT trying all that hard to "build a better camera" they are trying to build cameras that will sell, sell, sell! Except, of course at "the Top-Of-The-Line" where they really do try to improve picture quality.

They aren't trying to make "Good Pocket Cameras" they are working to make cameras that are "good enough to sell".

Example:

Toyota (for the most part) makes "good" cars.
Yugo made cars that were "good enough to sell".